A weekly thread about the past
77 years ago today, the people of Britain went to the polls – Nazi Germany had been defeated, the Japanese Empire had yet to surrender. It took three weeks for the results to be announced, with ballot boxes kept under … Continue reading The History Thread takes a critical look at Attlee’s Britain
For various reasons, the important thing I wanted to write– about the rise of the Salazar dictatorship in Portugal and how my dad’s family fled to this country to avoid having Salazar’s government send more of his brothers to go … Continue reading The June 28th History Thread Is At A Loss
Elmer of Malmesbury — also spelled Eilmer and about a million other different ways — was an English Benedictine monk who lived in the 11th century. I’ve probably posted about him here before, because I love him. He made a … Continue reading The June 21 History Thread Celebrates Elmer the Flying Monk
This week’s History Thread looks at our third (and final?) Strange Railway of Ireland! Continue reading The History Thread is Powered By Air
This week’s History Thread remembers the day after D-Day. Continue reading The Day After D-Day History Thread
The History Thread is back! What have you been reading? What have you been thinking about? Tell us here! As the long-term effects of COVID-19 become more apparent, I’ve been thinking about diseases of the lungs. The Irish Times had … Continue reading The Emergency History Thread Makes A Recovery
Herbert Block (aka Herblock) was one of the most famous political cartoonists of the 20th Century. For almost seven decades his caricatures of political events and public figures graced the Washington Post, earning him a Pulitzer Prize, a spot on … Continue reading History Thread: The Guns of Herblock
After a brief hiatus the History Thread is back! Discuss history or what have you! Continue reading The History Thread Returns!
Didn’t have time for a proper write-up this week, but it’s the anniversary of John Wilkes Booth’s death at the hands of Boston Corbett, himself a noted lunatic who castrated himself after a flirtation with prostitutes, survived several years of … Continue reading A Demented History Thread
Jamison “Jam” Handy was a remarkable man. Born in Philadelphia, Handy relocated to Chicago in his teen years where he worked variously as a reporter, cartoonist and advertising man. In his youth, Handy was an accomplished swimmer and athlete; twenty … Continue reading History Thread: A Brief History of Coily the Spring Sprite
History don’t stop just because Agnew ain’t here. Get yappin’. Continue reading The Slapdash History Thread of 4/12/22
I didn’t have time to put together a proper header this week, which is just as well. The next few weeks will be busy in Agnewland, so I’ll need some Avocado help maintaining the thread! On two of the next … Continue reading The History Thread Looks Ahead
In October 1888 Ambrose Bierce published a short story, “Charles Ashmore’s Trail,” in the San Francisco Examiner. Bierce’s tale concerned a sixteen year old boy from Troy, New York who left home one snowy evening in 1878 to retrieve water … Continue reading History Thread: Three Missing Olivers
I did not have time for a detailed write-up this week but I came across a fascinating article investigating (and debunking) one of the most famous ghost photographs of all time: the ghosts of the SS Watertown. If, like me, … Continue reading History Thread: The Case of the Phony Sea Specters
Military incompetence is a common subject for popular history. Humans are nothing if not fallible, and studying our failures can be more illuminating than tired, propagandized tales of glorious victory. Hence well-received, engaging books like Cecil Woodham-Smith’s The Reason Why (1953), Russell … Continue reading History Thread: Charles Fair’s From the Jaws of Victory (1971)
In 1920 Chicago was a city of 2.7 million souls, swollen with returning Great War veterans, Eastern European immigrants and Black migrants from the South. The city gained a reputation as an area of tumult, corruption and violence. In July … Continue reading History Thread: Tracking The Ragged Stranger
I was born in 1990. I was born right on one of those era-dividing lines, even though I didn’t know it at the time and wouldn’t realise it until I began studying history as a teenager in the years after … Continue reading The History Thread Stands With Ukraine
Spiro Agnew was a man of many talents. A modestly effective Baltimore County executive, he became a race-baiting Governor of Maryland and Richard Nixon’s alliteratively-insulting Vice President, raining hellfire on hippies, reporters, activists and “radiclibs.” As Vice President, he was … Continue reading History Thread: The Literary Genius of Spiro T. Agnew
As I languish in my exile with only beef jerky and books to keep me company, here is a History Thread. Enjoy yourself but be warned to wash your hands after every post lest you join the Legion of the … Continue reading A Plague-Ridden History Thread
On this date in 1904, the Japanese Imperial Navy launched a surprise attack on the Russian Pacific Fleet at Port Arthur (modern day Lushunkou, China), initiating the Russo-Japanese War. Admiral Togo Heihachiro, Japan’s brilliant naval leader, planned to incapacitate the … Continue reading The Surprise History Thread
I didn’t make a thread in advance today because I had a doctor’s appointment. But it wrapped up sooner than expected, so accept this history thread. My one, my only weekly thread (that will last beyond this spring). If it’s … Continue reading The Persistence of the History Thread
